


Even you

by Anthy_FalloutGirl (Anatheia)



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, I hate Nuka-World's canon endings, No Smut, That is stupid, Why would I attack my own settlements, maybe more if people want it, this is better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-24
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-24 10:03:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8368186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anatheia/pseuds/Anthy_FalloutGirl
Summary: Porter Gage asks his Boss a question, and gets more answers than he thought he would.





	

He still knew nothing about her.

She'd run the Gauntlet, killed Colter, and step by step, she was almost singlehandedly taking Nuka-World over. Running with her had been an...experience. She was alternatingly wildly compassionate and brutally violent. She was never sadistic or cruel; merely excessively violent. No wonder Nisha liked her so much.

She had something in her that he couldn't quite put his finger on; something in her past that she didn't talk about. Some nights, when they were back at the Overboss's lair, she'd drop some daytripper and pass out in her bed. Some nights, she said the name 'Nate' in her sleep. Some nights, she said 'Shaun'. 

When it was that one, she usually woke herself up crying. 

He was still staying with her, but he hadn't mentioned it yet. Finally, after she'd been there for a few months, he felt like she knew him well enough that he could probably ask.

But first he got her high.

Then he got her drunk.

 

She looked at him over the rim of the red souvenir mug full of moonshine, and took a sip, her eyes almost sleepy as she watched him.

"Well?" He frowned.

"Well what?" Shit. She saw through him.

"I'm high as fuck and drunk as hell, and you've been squirming like I put a swarm or flying ants in your shorts. Spill, Gage. There's obviously something you want to say." He hesitated, and realized she knew that he wanted something from her, but had no clue what it was.

"It's an ask, not a tell. That okay?" She took another sip, then nodded slightly.

"Who are 'Nate' and 'Shaun'?" Her eyes widened, and the mug slipped from her fingers, falling on the table, splashing them both with booze. She swore, and shoved away from the table, walking quickly across the room.

"Boss?" She was rifling through a drawer quickly, until she pulled a shirt out, then slammed the drawer shut. There was an ominous cracking sound from the drawer, and she made a small frustrated sound, before bowing her head, her hands clutching the shirt in tight fists. Then slowly, the Daytripper and the Calmex did their job, and she sighed, tossing the plaid shirt onto the double bed. 

She still stood with her back to him, and he heard a sniffle.

"How...how do you know those names, Gage?" He swallowed.

"You talk--cry, sometimes--in your sleep." She stood quietly for a moment, then tugged her tank top off, and he didn't avert his eyes. It wasn't the first time she'd changed with him around; she just turned her back, or made him do the same. He let himself enjoy that little peek. She'd flirted with him some, but they weren't involved. Not that he didn't want to be.

She was a hell of a woman, even if she wasn't pretty as hell, too. He thought Mags was the best looking woman before she showed up. Mags had thought so too. Gage had caught Mason and William both leering after her a few times as she walked off.

The Overboss picked up the dry shirt, and tugged it on, fiddling with the buttons.

 

"Nate was my husband. And...Shaun was our son. They're dead. Both murdered...by the Institute." Gage winced. He'd heard a couple of slaves say that being forced to work for the Raiders was still less terrifying than what the Institute would do to people.

"Ahh, hell. Sorry, boss. Just...worried about you is all." He tried to gruffly steer the conversation away, but she shook her head, ginger ponytail flicking back and forth as she sniffed a little, then wiped her eyse before she turned around. With the tank top she'd spilled on, she soaked up the moonshine, then tossed it in an old wire wastebasket she used as a 'hamper'.

"No. It's fine. You would have found out eventually." She sat down, and poured a full mug from the bottle between them, then met his gaze.

"I was born before the Great War. I came out of a Vault. Vault 111, in the Commonwealth Wasteland, just a little over two years ago. I'm pre-war...over two centuries old. I was a lawyer...I upheld the law. Defended the innocent. I was married to a Soldier, named Nate Pendleton. He and I had a son...Shaun. He was only a few months old when the bombs fell. We didn't know it was Cryosleep. We thought it was decontamination." 

His shock was plain on his face. This cold as ice and hard as fuck woman was a pre-war legal defender.

She was a Vault Dweller.

He figured she was from the Capitol, or Goodneighbor. Seeing the way she handled power armor and weapons, she coulda been a Brotherhood Deserter, too.

But he'd never taken her for one of the subterranean softies.

She didn't stop her story. She didn't look away. 

She had his complete attention.

 

"A man named Kellogg thawed us out sixty two years ago, and shot Nate dead, stealing Shaun from his arms. Thn they froze me back up, and left me there for sixty years. Suddenly, I got thawed out, and the first thing I did was look for my son. Chased him to Diamond City...then to the inside of the Institute himself. I thought he was a little boy. I didn't know how much time had passed." 

There was a pack of cigarettes on the table, but he'd never seen her smoke. 

Mags liked them, so there was always a pack or two around from when she was 'conferring with her leiutenants'. She pulled one from the package, and tugged the candle close, lighting the cigatette with surprising ease. 

Her hand shook a little as she took a drag, then exhaled a thin column of smoke over their heads, before just staring at the cherry end for a moment.

"The little boy I'd been chasing was a Synth. A fucking robot kid, made to lure me into finding my way there. Made by my son, my real son, Shaun. An old man of sixty, dying of cancer. He was the Director of the Institute." Gage leaned back in shock, and she took another drag, smiling a little.

"He was a fucking monster. So I got my friends, and I snuck back in, and I fucking murdered him to save the Commonwealth." 

Her voice cracked halfway through the admission, and Gage reached out slowly, taking the cigarette from her hand. He took a drag, then let the smoke simply float out of his mouth, not sure what to say to her.

She smiled at him a little, but took a drink.

"I kept the little boy though. The robot kid. He's back there...with my friends. They're better parents to him than I could be. Ageless, eternally patient guardians for my little Peter Pan...ten years old forever, living in a Castle on the Coast, while Mommy saves the world, one dead monster at a time."

Gage stared at her for a moment, then offered the cigarette back. She took it, putting it to her lips and breathing deep through it's paper filter.

 

"You know all those cushy settlements you can't hardly wait to get out there and rob and murder?" He nodded, and she smiled, putting the cigarette out carefully, leaning away. She was suddenly more dangerous, he could feel it in his guts.

"I'm the General of the Commonwealth Minutemen. They're my settlements. I planted the crops. I put up the walls that keep you out. I built the turrets and installed the spotlights and I command the soldiers that guard the walls...just like I do here. I'm the good-guy Overboss... and the bad-guy Overboss, too." His jaw actually dropped, and she chuckled, lifting a hand, touching his chin lightly, her fingertips lingering on his skin.

"Listen to me, Gage. When I came through the Gauntlet...you thought you were talking me into something...and you did." She leaned across the table a little, fingertips sliding along his jaw as her hand slid to rest on the back of his neck.

"You talked me into being the Overboss...ruling the Raiders of Nuka-World...but make no mistake...if you hadn't offered me a chance to preserve the lives of the people here...I came here with the intention of killing every last person who wasn't wearing a collar." She leaned a little further, and surprised him by exerting enough pressure on the back of his neck to pull him closer, before she let her lips brush against his in a chaste kiss.

"Even you." 

 

She murmured the two words against his mouth, and rather than make him draw back, he wanted to lean into her, to kiss her back, hard and deep. Knock over the table, and shove her down on the bed. 

Hell, let her knock over the table and shove him down on the bed. 

This one, he'd take either way.

"Why tell me? Why keep us alive if you don't intend to let us be raiders?" She smiled against his mouth.

"Because it's fun, Gage. I am still the General...but I had to leave. I couldn't bear the pressure of being...good all the time. Sometimes, you just wanna tell people to fuck off. But I'm a leader. Couldn't do it. So I heard the siren song of Nuka-World, and I left to make a fresh start. Be somewhere nobody thinks less of me for turning my back on that kid." 

She licked her lips, but didn't pull away, didn't raise her voice. 

Her lips brushed his as she spoke, what she wanted and what she was offering were both becoming very clear.

"I wanted to kill. I wanted to scream, and fight, and bleed...and by god do I do that here. I can't let them come to any harm, because I'm a woman of my word...but I won't let my Raiders down either....I have a much bigger...much...jucier target in mind. The biggest score...bigger than any of these drugged out fuckwits could think of...but you and me...god, with a man like you at my side...what couldn't I accomplish?" 

He could feel that smile--that icy smile, but now it was like fire and blood and the finest whisky against his mouth, and he wanted to lean in, drink deep.

"So what's this 'big score'?" he asked. Mind on the prize, Gage. If he played his carsd right, she might be the trophy he claimed at the end of the night. He wanted to be the man behind the power, ruling through her like a little puppet, and he'd thought she was so obedient to him. Now he knew she was more devious than he was.

Her smile widened a little.

"Have you ever heard of 'The Brotherhood of Steel'?" 

 

"You wanna go up against the fuckin' Brotherhood?! You're crazy, Boss!" She laughed, and let him go, leaning back in her seat.

"Oh, please! The Brotherhood are all a bunch of fucking pricks, and they've done more harm than good in most places. They're arguably bigger bullies than even the Raiders are--and they have tech, and caps. Disciples want to kill things; let them kill Knights. Pack wants to fight? Let them fight the hardest prey of all! And the Operators want tech and caps...well, Brotherhood has plenty to spare in their Citadel at the Pentagon. It's a perfect compromise." 

She rose from the table, and walked away to come back with an old worn mapbook. Her dainty hands, nails neat but short and calloused from using guns, flipped a few pages, and he saw she'd made careful notes on many pages.

"Their main army is currently HERE--in the Commonwealth. An army of raiders could sweep in and take their base of operations in DC by surprise, while my Minutemen could bomb that airship out of the skies and sink it in the harbor. Destroy the eastern Brotherhood in a double attack." She was grinning as she slapped the book on the table beside him, pointing to the little pentagon shape she'd drawn, the one with the big red 'X' through it.

 

"Afterwards, we re-arm the Raiders with all that fancy new gear...and we start to take more territory. We stop using Slave Collars, because what's the point of having caps if you ain't gonna spend them...believe me, you can't fucking take them with you, no matter what those crazy Atom fucks say." Gage swallowed, staring at the map. 

It wasn't a bad plan. It might actually work. 

He had questions though.

"What do you mean, 'We'?" She blinked in surprise, and then laughed.

"I'll need my right hand man, Porter Gage. Just as you needed me to unite these gangs, I need you to help them stay that way. I can't do this without you...if you won't help me do this, Gage..." Her smile faded a little, and she almost looked sad.

 

"Well, tonight I sleep with your body going cold on my floor, and in the morning, I start systematically slaughtering the Raiders until they're all dead and Nuka-World becomes a Minutemen Colony." He must have looked shocked, and she turned away from the table, towards him, stepping between his spread knees, catching her hand on one of the bars on his armor.

"I really don't want to do that, Gage. I'd much rather have you warm in my bed than cold on my floor...but the choice is yours." He swallowed his baser urges for just a little longer.

"Sounds like you are looking for more than a 'right hand man'. Sounds like you could use a Partner." She smiled, bright and pleased, a smile he hardly ever saw.

"Just don't forget who's 'Overboss'...Partner." He chuckled, deep and husky in his throat.

"Oh, I won't forget, Boss..." He took a chance, and let his hands come to rest on her hips, making her smirk a little.

"Oh, Gage...any man who slips between my sheets gets to call me Nora."

"Well then, Nora...I gotta tell ya, this wasn't really how I was thinking this little talk was gonna go. Strange...to have something that actually feels...worth fighting for. Worth fighting with." She laughed a little, standing on her tip toes to lean over his armor to give him an inviting kiss.

 

"We're more than just a good team, Gage. You know it, and I l know it." He sighed a little, and let his hands slide up, exploring that little curve he so admired from behind, at least when she was out of that monstrous X-01 Power Armor she stomped around in half the time.

"Yeah, I guess we are. I ain't gonna go all sappy on you, but...Damn, Boss. You are somethin' else. I don't know how to explain it. Like, I found a piece of me I didn't know I was missin'." He sighed a little, and she lifted one hand, cupping his cheek as she gently caressed his bottom lip with her thumb. He licked his lips, almost unconsciously, as if he could taste her touch lingering on his mouth.

"I don't know what happens next...But, hell, ain't nobody I'd rather have with me." It came out husky, low. She'd kept things from him, but when the time came, she was square with him. She'd laid it all on the table, and given him the choice. 

He chose her; her plan, and what she was offering between them. He wasn't sure what his favorite part of the deal was just yet, but he was pretty sure he'd know by morning.

"That's because unlike these savages and degenerates...you're not a 'bad man', Gage. I see myself in you...maybe if I'd been born in this world, we'd be more alike than we already are." He chuckled a little.

"Wouldn't mind seein' myself in you, if you've been sayin' what I think you're sayin'?" She laughed, and stepped away, tugging on his armor and dragging him off the stool where he sat.

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

**Author's Note:**

> Side Note: The Porter Gage I envision is not the hollow cheeked guy with the mohawk, but instead is the Gage of this mod here:  
> http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/18116/?
> 
> I personally prefer it, but I did try not to go with two many of the details here so his appearance is mostly canon. I used some of the in-game dialogue because I'm a weirdo who likes canon divergence while still using all the canon stuff I can.


End file.
